It’s a design that has come to not only own the space but claim a central position in highlighting the lavish redesign of the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel. H&E’s work on the iconic CBD building’s elevated Wentworth Bar and courtyard – anchored by a statement copper canopy crafted by ARC [Architectural Roofing & Wall Cladding] – has come to drive the narrative of the property’s wider $70m refurbishment. H&E’s Co-principal Chris Grinham joined ARC’s Juerg Wilk and CASA’s Volker Raedel for a roundtable discussion of the project – exploring craftsmanship and the power of collaboration in good design.

H&E: Let’s discuss the coming together here between the studio and ARC / CASA. You’ve previously worked together – across the Queens Avenue residential project and on the Space Furniture Sydney retail space. Though it feels there was a really strong sense of collaboration from the outset on The Wentworth.   
Chris Grinham: Those projects you mention aligned us a little bit more closely as to what we needed and having someone who understood the complexities of each. And then The Wentworth, literally from the get-go, once we had the fundamental design, we had the approval and the go ahead from the client, it was about engaging a partner – we needed to bring someone to the table who can go on the journey with us as to how we deliver it. Because it’s one thing to be able to draw, one thing to be able to three dimensionally model the whole thing. But it’s another thing for someone to be able to physically deliver.  

H&E: From you end Volker [CASA] was there any trepidation given the many complexities of the design?   
Volker Raedel: No, but I think it was a little bit of a no brainer because Queen’s Avenue, a very boutique job – we’re talking very complicated – was outstanding. And it then become almost natural that when you have a job like this [The Wentworth] you automatically go to people with confidence. 

H&E: When we look at your portfolio – across ARC and CASA – the one thing we see is innovation. The other being craftsmanship.  
VR: Yes, we always try to lean out. And we have, over the years, always played with our own substructures because we are very European, in case you couldn’t tell … We don’t like this whole packing idea and this gung ho Aussie approach. Which is nothing against Australians, but this is sort of just [our] standard. Over the last couple of years we have profiled and cut our own substructures and whilst we’re not engineers, we have enough experience and I would say 95% of our ideas and what we put together is getting signed off without any further back and forth.  

H&E: To talk about The Wentworth – this elevated and tight site five storeys above one of the busiest Sydney CBD streets – is to talk about a build methodology and approach that is equally driven by limiting site time, certainly in regards to necessary road closures and so on?  
VR: I call it the IKEA approach because time on site is the most valuable, the most expensive. You want to make things as simple as possible, as easy as possible, as straightforward as possible. So we applied that methodology on that job and it worked out very, very nicely. We created blades, we had 180 different curves on the blade because every curve is slightly different. And then basically we laser all of that, we brake press it and we put it together. And I call it the ‘dead whale’ or the ‘dead dinosaur’ approach – like what little kids play with where they stick things together. We had this kind of approach.  
Juerg Wilk: And then it was the access too …  
CG: It wasn’t just access, it was also the fact that we had a ballroom spanning 60 metres in every direction underneath us as well. So, you can’t just put a 12-tonne crane on top of that deck. We had smaller crawler cranes running around facilitating the installation and that also then comes into looking at, well, what is the maximum size of a piece of steel that we can bring up onto the roof that can be picked up by these smaller cranes? And then that informs the design process. Even something as simple as how big a crane can we get on the roof to move things around comes to inform how you’re designing the structure and then suddenly you’re looking at, if I remember correctly, the primary steel beams actually being stitched together – they weren’t full length, they actually had elements to them where they were clipped together because we couldn’t bring them in one piece, particularly the longer pieces as we come to the ends of the arc.  

H&E: Quite a few constraints then …  
CG: An awful lot of site constraints that actually very much informed the design. And the funny thing about all of this is that you get to the end of the process and all these things we’re talking about – no one sees any of it.  

H&E: So to jump on that point, how do you view the end results from both your perspectives – from the design perspective but also from ARC’s perspective?
JW: From our perspective it’s that traditional method of cladding something in thin metal – well, you can’t bend it in two directions, it can only be bent in one direction. [The Wentworth] required the sheet to bend almost, in theory, in two directions … So we had to, with the spacing and the layout, we had to go very gently and close to the radius, to give that impression that this is actually curved in two directions and is not segmented. Because if you looked at it as though it was segmented, it would be gone – the design would be nothing anymore. But if you look at how smooth it goes around – in my view that is the biggest thing.
CG: I’m going to say what I love about this thing is that when you look at the heritage of the building and the existing use of copper on the facade and the rather lovely and voluptuous nature of that [street] awning, which has been there since 1966 and it’s still going strong and hopefully it will be for many years to come as well. Well, I love the idea that this awning that we’ve all created is going to be there for another hundred years and become as much a fabric of this building as the rest of it.

H&E: There is a wonderfully powerful synergy here – between heritage and what’s gone before and what is new. It plays together beautifully.
CG: It looks like it belongs in that space – which is pretty bloody cool. And I think you’ve got to make a point that as architects we can draw these things, but it takes real craftsmen to actually help us deliver them and put them together.
VR: What is very important in my opinion, in documenting this, is that we’re talking a lot about digital drafting and new machinery, which is all valid and has a big impact. But what is also very important is the people that work for us – they’re highly trained and capable craftsmen and they actually do deserve the word craftsman because no drawing, no computer program can do what they’ve done here.

H&E: There is a level of hands-on craftsmanship that is increasingly overlooked across the aligned industries.
CG: It was brilliant to go on site and see these guys with gloved hands putting it together…
JW: … It’s skill and we’re proud of that. And the sheets were cut, digitally generated defaulting to curing. But everything is done by hand – it’s [put] all up by hand. It’s a lot of hard work. And it’s beautiful.
CG: I was going to say, the other thing that I think is important to state is that it’s also the fact that one contractor did primary steel, secondary steel, copper work and the glazing. So you guys managed that whole aspect and in totality in regards to the installation … I don’t think we would’ve had the outcome we’ve achieved if we didn’t have one person taking control of it all. It’s encouraging to know you’ve got someone who understands intent, has an eye for detail, who I can give an entire package to; I feel very confident that it’s going to be delivered to our vision.

H&E: Let’s talk about the patination and weathering that’ll take place with this beautiful canopy – it’s something many are curious about. What can we expect over time?
VR: The beautiful thing about copper is that it’s unpredictable. What I would say is that in the next 20 years we will come somewhere close to the [street] awning, give or take. The canopy is now kind of a reddish-brown that will eventually darken down.
JW: In about 10 – 15 years we’re talking towards the black – this is what I would expect to see over time… There’s always the question, when does it turn green? When we look at this, well, in many, many years.

H&E: Was there ever any consideration, at any point, given to not utilising copper?
CG: No. It’s funny, I’ve had a few ask me, ‘where did the design come from – it looks like a shell?’ And I hate to say it but it’s a little bit more mundane than that – it’s literally an exercise of looking at the building and what is a very bespoke response to the constraints of the building and the opportunities that the existing architecture presents. It’s nothing more, nothing less.

H&E: You’re proud of this one. And rightly so.
CG: I think it’s some of the best stuff we’ve ever done. I think it’s one of the best build outcomes we’ve ever been associated with as well. I think it’s really beautiful.
 

[footnote] Further design elements across The Sofitel Sydney Wentworth were devised and delivered by FK.